BUILDING A BY-THE-BOOK LOTUS SEVEN REPLICA
While Canadian provinces begin to lift restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, builders continue to tinker in their home workshops.
Doug Mcdougall of Edmonton has nearly finished constructing his Lotus Seven replica, and he has used self-isolation time to fine-tune the details.
Mcdougall’s interest in a Lotus Seven was sparked several years ago after he saw one perform on the racetrack.
“The car was simple and lightweight, and with less than 100 horsepower, it beat everything out there,” he recalls. “Soon after that, I found a book in the library about building a low-budget Lotus Seven replica.”
That book, called Build Your Own Sports Car for As Little As £250, was written by Ron Champion. In it, the author provided step-by-step instructions on how to craft a roadworthy vehicle on a shoestring budget.
“I took that book out of the library and looked through it, and thought, ‘There’s nothing in here I can’t do,’” he says.
Mcdougall’s interest in automobiles and tinkering comes honestly. In 1903, his grandfather began an apprenticeship with designer Charles Rolls. It was in 1904 that Rolls joined forces with Henry Royce to form Rolls-royce Motor Cars.
“My grandfather was 13 when he started with Rolls,” Mcdougall says. “When I was a kid, I was always taking things apart, and I bought my first car, a 1952 Pontiac, for $10 when I was 12 years old.”
He borrowed a service manual from the library, figured out how to take everything apart and put it back together, and soon had the in-line six-cylinder engine running. Mcdougall said his father encouraged him and his six younger brothers to tinker.
“He said he’d rather have his boys in the garage than out and getting into trouble.”
One of Mcdougall’s favourite cars was a 1956 Austin Healey.
“After about two years of driving, the engine in the Healey started to give up,” he says.
It had an uncommon 2.7-litre four-cylinder engine, and Mcdougall couldn’t even find a head gasket for it, let alone parts to do a rebuild. But he found a wrecked 1965 Mustang that had a good 289-cubic-inch V8 engine. With some ingenuity, he got the Mustang power plant under the hood of the Healey.
The low-cost Lotus Seven replica got started when Mcdougall bought a 1986 Toyota Corolla GTS, which was stripped for its running gear and wiring harness. Then Mcdougall built a frame table, bought a quantity of one-inch-by-one-inch square 16-gauge mild steel tubing and began cutting and welding together a frame.
It took only three months to complete the frame, but then life got in the way and the project was put aside.
“I finally decided I wasn’t getting any younger and I’d better finish it while I was still able to get in and out of it,” Mcdougall says.
Over the past three years, Mcdougall built the A-arm front suspension with MGB rack-and-pinion steering, and the four-link rear end, shaped and formed the aluminum body panels, and installed a Mazda Miata steering column and pedal assembly.
While that sounds simple, many challenges had to be overcome for everything to fit together as one cohesive unit, including installing an upgraded engine rescued from a 1989 Toyota Corolla GTS.
In 2019, Mcdougall’s creation passed inspection and he was driving it legally on the road.
During his recent self-isolation, Mcdougall built a bin to fit in the back and had to pull the gas tank out to fit it in. He also installed soundproofing material on the back of the cabin and the bottom of the bin while it was apart. And for safety, he wired in a rollover switch from a 2004 Lincoln Town Car — the switch shuts off the fuel pump if the car tips over in an accident.
If Castrol Raceway is allowed to host participant-based events this summer, Mcdougall will enthusiastically flog his creation around the 2.7-kilometre, 14-turn road course.